HM Revenue & Customs Research

The Useful information for researchers related to HM Revenue and Customs site at the Merseyside Maritime Museum is easily overlooked, since it's not part of the archives and library section where the rest of the research guides are located. Part of the Seized! exhibit section, it contains information guides with details on records, a brief history of smuggling in Britain, and pointers for genealogists. There's even an extensive book list for further reading on the topics of customs and excise and smuggling--including a citation to a book for children. The site also links to a wide range of websites in the fields of archives and heritage, government (local and international), education, and even endangered species and animal welfare, proving it a useful starting point for research in any of the many fields touched by the history of illicit imports.

Unclogging the Houston Ship Channel

Today's Morning Edition on NPR has an excellent story, "Coast Guard Unclogs Houston Ship Channel" by Noah Adams that tells you what happens when the channel to the tenth busiest port in the world loses its channel markers, and how they were replaced to restore shipping within three days. The story is rich with the sounds of the Channel, and the voices of those who became very important to the global economy.

All the Best Rubbish

I picked up Ivor Noel Hume's All the Best Rubbish because I had enjoyed his Martin's Hundred, and simply because it was on top of the pile.

That was weeks ago. Much of it has stayed with me, especially his subtle wit which made me laugh out loud on pre-dawn bus commutes. His brief history of museums and collecting in England set them into the context of seafaring exploration and trade in a way which made me appreciate the extent to which Anglo-American museum history is maritime history.

But the words that I hope I will carry with me always are on page 83:

Any of us who tampers with the remains of the past has a moral responsibility to it...

What makes this book such an indispensable partner is the fact that it tells us why.

Following bluefin

I first became interested in bluefin tuna through reading Trevor Corson's Zen of fish : the story of sushi from Samurai to supermarket (which is now out in paperback as The Story of sushi). After hearing Richard Ellis on NPR's Talk of the Nation, I'm eager to read his new book, Tuna : a love story.

The NPR story, broadcast on Sept. 5, 2008, is available as a podcast, and is well worth a listen; a little over a half-hour, the discussion includes developments from recent research, and fascinating details about the life of an amazing creature.

While you're listening, you can also watch a bluefin from the comfort of your own computer via the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Outer Bay Cam, which is accompanied by an excellent spotting guide to help identify the animals you're seeing.

Talk like a pirate day

It's an annual event and quite a cultural phenomenon: Sept. 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. It was all started by Dave Barry, with his Miami Herald column from Sept. 8, 2002.

Wired has takent the opportunity to post A Reality Check - 9 Pirate Myths Examined with useful links embedded in the text, including one to an article from Slate, published June 5, 2007, that examines the origins of what we think of as pirate-speech. Both articles argue strongly that we're really celebrating Talk Like Robert Newton Day.

Want to really talk like a pirate? Of course, pirates today probably speak like everyone else does, only possibly more strongly. (I would rather not find out for sure.) But Christopher Bonanos, the author of the Slate article, provides instructions for speaking like a historic pirate:

...onboard speech was most likely underclass British sailor with extra curse words, augmented with a polyglot slang of French, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch picked up around the trade routes

Cheers, bon chance, and good [expletive deleted] celebrations!

Arctic chills

I have been eagerly following the current wave of Arctic exploration, and clicked over to the Arctic Chronicles, the new USGS blog by Jessica Robertson, with anticipation. It wasn't the image of ice to port that gave me goosebumps, nor the thrill of following along on an expedition in a way unthought of in Lady Franklin's day; it was the name of the ship: U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy.

Captain Healy's thrilling story will give anyone chills. The son of a former slave, I first learned about him through Maria Brooks' film, The Odyssey of Captain Healy. His story is exciting in ways that would ring falsely in fiction, and now the U.S.'s newest and most technologically advanced icebreaker is proudly carrying his name on a voyage of exploration.

How to Avoid Huge Ships takes third

John Trimmer's How to Avoid Huge Ships finished a close third in the Bookseller's online poll to find the oddest book title of the last thirty years, taking a respectable 10% of the vote. The winner with 13% was Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers, followed by People Who Don't Know They're Dead with 11%.

Conceived as a way to avoid boredom at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Tittle of the Year was first awarded by The Diagram Group in 1978 to Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice. How to Avoid Huge Ships won the prize in 1992, just before American Bottom Archaeology took it in 1993.

Leap seconds

The U.S. Naval Observatory has posted a survey to gather information in advance of the International Telecommunications Union Radiocommunications Sector's consideration of a proposal to discontinue the periodic addition of leap seconds to Coordinated Universal Time. Probably of more interest to the maritime professions than the museum crowd, it is worth a look--the more technically minded can find a link there to the .pdf of the Memorandum and white paper from Assistant Secretary of Defense John G. Grimes (from Sept. 3, 2008).

The more general reader may wish to follow the other link at the top of the page to the USNO's leap seconds page. Scientific and historical, this page links to other fascinating resources such as excellent descriptions of different systems of time.

Where no water bear has gone before

Tardigrades, also known as water bears, are fascinating creatures. They are little studied, but very successful--they live on land, in fresh water, and in the sea. They are amazingly hardy creatures, able to survive incredibly harsh environments, and have become the first known animal able to survive the vacuum of outer space.

Details are in the coverage of the press release in Science Daily, which has a link to the article in Current Biology. If you have access to a microscope, you can go find water bears--see the Goldstein Lab at UNC Chapel Hill's website on tardigrades to learn how. You may fall under their spell--they're absolutely adorable, and as enchanting as any magical creature--they can survive for years without water, even traveling on the wind, can be freeze-dried, and come back to life in minutes when rehydrated.

Museum Associations

The American Association of Museums (in the U.S.) has released new Standards Regarding Archaeological Material and Ancient Art (approved July, 2008). This is just one publication on a useful website; it's a shame that much of the information there is hidden behind a member login, since membership in AAM is far beyond the resources of the majority of museums in the U.S.

This is where the Small Museum Association comes in. Their website even features a Classifieds section, and their list of members is wonderful--you can limit by type of museum with a handy pop-down list.

Maritime Flickr

The maritime treasure on Flickr is breathtaking. Beyond the beauty of the images shared by contemporary photographers (one of my favorites is OneEighteen) are the historic images being uploaded to Flickr in droves. The image that accompanies this post is from The Smithsonian Institution's photostream. Of course, not all of it is maritime, but the institutional users are taking their Flickr presence very seriously, with thorough captions, topical sets for easy browsing, and tags that allow easy searching & retrieval of their images.

I also like checking out who the institution's contacts are (go to their Profile, then scroll down). (The Brooklyn Museum's behind the scenes sets are fascinating.) If you check out the Library of Congress' Flickr site, be prepared to search by tags, because they have over 4000 images in only two sets, so browsing by set may take a while--a fun while, but a while.

The true maritime treasure on Flickr? Here you go:

• Australian National Maritime Museum
  
• Independence Seaport
  
• National Maritime Museum (U.K.)
  
• Northwest Seaport
  
• Wisconsin Maritime Museum
  

Use the "people" search to find more!

Bookstart Day

Booktrust in the U.K. has announced the theme for National Bookstart Day 2008: Pirates Ahoy!

I find this fascinating. Their slogan, "gifting free books to babies," makes me imagine a ship full of babies preparing to repel boarders.

So arm yourself with a book and get involved! Their website has information for libraries, parents, booksellers--in the U.K. and abroad. An article at booktrade.info also has details on planned activities, including those at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Exhibition: Model show in Denver

The Rocky Mountain Shipwrights send along an annoucement of their Model Show and Exhibition, Oct. 18 through Nov. 1, 2008, in Denver, Colorado. There will be models of sailing ships, steamships, warships--from beginners to masters, from kits and from scratch.

If you can't make it to Denver, do check out the photo gallery on their website.

Three books: true tales of piracy

A new addition to NPR's Three Books series are three books concerning true tales of piracy and plunder. This list was compiled by author Brooks Brown, who, according to the photo caption, "has spent many years trying to prove that pirates are way cooler than ninjas."

Hmmm. The ninjas that appear in The Tick are pretty cool.

Do head over and check out the list--NPR's book coverage is wonderful, whether you read the webpage or follow the link to the audio. And if you want to support public broadcasting, follow the links in the little blue-gray box to buy the books.

Still Searching for the Franklin Expedition

It's true; according to Randy Boswell's article, Parks Canada to lead new search for Franklin's ships:

The Canadian government confirmed Friday it will embark on the most extensive search ever for the fabled British shipwrecks Erebus and Terror...

Why send out the icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier? Why look for Franklin's ships after all this time? Not just for global maritime history, but for the reasons that have lain behind maritime exploration for centuries: to boost a claim for sovereignty.

If you're unfamiliar with the Franklin Expedition, or the contemporary issues surrounding nations' claims to seabed rights in the Arctic, read Boswell's article--he summarizes the history and why it's important to the polar nations of today. He even includes a fascinating tidbit: Britain gave the ships to Canada, should they ever be found.

The resources concerning Franklin and the northwest passage are vast; some of the best include:

• Nova's Arctic Passage site
  
• Franklin's narratives at Project Gutenberg
  
• NMM's Northwest Passage site
  

And a there's even a wonderful novel, Andrea Barrett's The Voyage of the Narwhal.

Want to explore virtually? Then follow the CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier icebreaker via the sailwx.info website. Imagine what it would have been like for Lady Franklin to have had that option.

Albania, over and under the water

I just discovered Nicolle Hirschfeld's wonderful Underwater Albania. Beautifully written, start with the first post, "Albania??" published on August 5, where she speaks of the associations that she has with Albania and its history. Her story continues as one of the best travelogues I've ever read, bringing Albania to life with vivid detail and humor.

But this is not just entertainment; Nicolle is an assistant professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. The turns of phrase, though, give the impression that this instructor is a wordsmith. To her, the Illyrian pirates were "the stuff of Roman nightmares," and she weaves into a late night post the story of an ancient Egyptian search for cedar. In the midst, she clearly and engagingly explains the role of every step in the expedition. For those of us not fortunate enough to ever be involved in such a venture, this blog should be required reading--she involves the reader in every step from the high-tech surveys to squashing into a wetsuit.

The post that made me a devoted reader, though, was published on Aug. 18, and began:

I am where I love to be. Behind me, the island of Corfu; before me, the coast of Albania.

How rare to be where you love to be, and to take the time to share it with the world?

Positions & the Caird Library blog

I've tweaked our layout a bit to create a handy list of job resources, from individual maritime museums that post their open positions, to general job listings where maritime jobs tend to show up. Also, I've added some links that include marine education positions in academic and marine industry settings.

Some of them have rss feeds, some sites have email distribution, and some sites have neither--just click through to check them out.

And I've added a blog to our list that I absolutely love reading: the blog from the Caird Library at the NMM in Greenwich. It has everything that I think an institutional blog should: news regarding services, resource highlights, and quick blurbs about resources of interest. They provide an rss feed and email distribution, so sign up--but don't neglect visiting the site. They include handy links to the catalog and a wonderful selection of news headlines.

What will we find and why?

Luke Slattery's article In search of Western Civilization's lost classics in the Aug. 6, 2008 edition of The Australian isn't just interesting for its discussion of the latest techniques that allow us to read charred papyri, but for addressing the question of why we go to all this trouble. Why archeology? Why conservation? Why study? Why write history?

And what does this have to do with maritime history?

Consider that these texts may hold a copy of the Kypria, which is believed to be Homer's source material, as well as many other highly influential lost texts, which have shaped our ideas of not only who we were, but who we are.

Our sense of our history influences our concepts of ourselves, but we often forget that history is not fixed--it is written based on what is available. And occasionally we are lucky enough to recover objects from our past that allow us to rewrite our history and change our concepts of ourselves.

In conclusion

In this last look at the maritime books in The Guardian's top ten series, I have quite a few lists for you, and have barely scratched the surface. How many lists are there at The Guardian's top ten series site? As of this writing, 270. That's a lot of reading. The lists below, published from 2003 back to the beginning of the series, contain a lot of the usual suspects, but also some surprises:

• Jude Fisher's top ten tales of adventure has a lot of maritime books, including one in a genre not often represented in the maritime world, fantasy. Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb is a fun read, and unusual for setting merchant shipping in a magical world. Ever think your ship is actually intelligent? Then you need to read this book and check out the rest of Fisher's recommendations.
  
• Peter F. Steven's top ten nautical books contains titles that will probably be familiar to most MaritimeCompass readers, but the book at the no.1 spot is worth mentioning: Armada by Garrett Mattingly is a must-read for anyone interesting in the history of ships, shipping, or naval developments. Wonder why merchant ships of the 19th century look as they do? This book actually explains it. The period of the Armada was pivotal for shipbuilding, and if you think naval architecture is a dry subject, then this is the book that will make it come alive.
  
• Martin Gorst's top ten books on science contains many titles of interest to maritime readers, covering math, Darwin, and astronomy.
  

And their lists will keep coming--if this has whetted your appetite, go to the Guardian's main top tens site and add it to your rss reader. And explore the rest of the site--they have great content, for free, including Ten top sea kayaking destinations, if you need to fit in a trip before the summer's over!

And we're off

Have you brushed up on the history of science? Sharpened your navigation skills? Then check out Max jones' top ten books about exploration. The author of The Last Great Quest: Captain Scott's Antarctic Sacrifice, his list is rich in titles about Scott, but broadens to include explorers from the 14th century through man's journeying into space.